Home
A-R.com Blog
Railroad History Industry History
Fallen Flags
Streamliners
Railroad Stations
Interurbans
State Railroading
Passenger and Commuter Rail Passenger Rail
Commuter Rail
Railroading Today Class Is
Regionals
Shortlines
Rolling Stock Steam
Diesels
Electrics
Passenger Cars
Freight Cars
Infrastructure and Terms RR Infrastructure
Rail Maintenance
Railroad Glossary
Museums and Tourism Railroad Museums
Tourist Railroads
Miscellaneous Railroad Jobs
Rail Magazines
Railroad Stories
TRD Store
Subscribe To TRS!
Contact
The Forums
Advertise With Us!
Site Search
Quality Links
About The Site Resources
About
Your Success, SBI!
Privacy Policy
Terms of Use

[?] Subscribe To This Site

XML RSS
Add to Google
Add to My Yahoo!
Add to My MSN
Subscribe with Bloglines

Fallen Flags, The Classic American Railroad

Fallen Flags, a name all too common now describing American railroads (just a bittersweet fact of the free market at work), is term meaning those railroads whose corporate name has been dissolved either through merger, bankruptcy, or liquidation. At one time in the United States there were nearly 140 Class I railroads (or those with at least $1 million annual operating revenue at that time) and today these are commonly known as the fallen flags or “classic” railroads. The older folks reading this can remember almost all of these in person, from the legendary Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway with its famous Warbonnet paint scheme to the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad and this country’s first common carrier, the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

Most of the fallen flags remembered today operated roughly until the 1970s before bankruptcy and mass-mergers (which began in the 1950s with the Norfolk & Western purchase of the Virginian Railway) did many in and dwindled the Class I numbers to just a handful. While the glory days of railroads (when they were earning the most profits) extended from roughly the late 19th century to just after WWII, ask most railfans and the time period with which these railroads are best remembered extends from roughly the 1940s to the 1970s when the railroads began switching from steam locomotives to diesel-electrics (commonly known as “diesels”) and paint schemes and emblems abounded, giving each company its own, personal identity with which folks could relate to.

Much of this "bonding" came from the fact that railroads during those days operated in a particular region or part of the country where folks could easily recognize the railroad which ran through their town (and to some extent, railroads back then used to be a bit more cordial than today), and not the entire eastern or western half of the country like we see today (for instance, some small towns boasted four to five Class Is at one time!).

Today nearly all of those classic railroads, now fallen flags, are gone except for just a few (the Union Pacific is perhaps the most notable along with the Kansas City Southern and the Canadian roads Canadian Pacific and Canadian National), although their legends and names will always live on. Here you will find information on some of the best remembered of these classic fallen flags describing each in more detail and broken down into the territory where they operated (i.e., east, west, north, south).

Northeast

Baltimore & Ohio

Bangor & Aroostook Railroad

Bessemer & Lake Erie

Boston & Maine

Buffalo Creek & Gauley Railroad

Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway

Canadian National Railway (This railroad is still operating, it is placed here because of its long and storied history.)

Canadian Pacific Railway (This railroad is still operating, it is placed here because of its long and storied history.)

Central Railroad of New Jersey (Jersey Central)

Central Vermont Railway

Chesapeake & Ohio

Chessie System

Conrail

Delaware & Hudson

Delaware, Lackawanna & Western (The Lackawanna)

Erie Railroad

Erie Lackawanna

Lehigh & Hudson River

Lehigh & New England

Lehigh Valley

Long Island Rail Road (This railroad is still operating but is placed here because of its historical significance.)

Maine Central

Maryland & Pennsylvania Railroad

Monongahela Railway

New York Central System

New York, New Haven & Hartford

New York, Ontario & Western Railway

Pennsylvania Railroad

Penn Central

Pittsburgh & Lake Erie

Pittsburgh & West Virginia

Reading Lines

Rutland Railroad

Western Maryland

Southeast

Atlantic Coast Line

Central of Georgia

Clinchfield Railroad

Family Lines System

Florida East Coast (FEC) (This railroad is still operating, it is placed here because of its long and storied history.)

Gulf, Mobile & Ohio

Louisville & Nashville

Norfolk & Western Railway

Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac

Seaboard Air Line

Seaboard Coast Line

Southern Railway

Virginian

West Point Route

Midwest

Akron, Canton & Youngstown Railroad

Algoma Central Railway

Chicago, Aurora & Elgin Railroad

Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (The Burlington Route)

Chicago & Eastern Illinois

Chicago & Illinois Midland

Chicago & North Western

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific (Rock Island)

Chicago Great Western

Chicago, South Shore & South Bend Railroad (This railroad is still operating but is placed here because of its historical significance.)

Detroit & Mackinac Railway

Detroit, Toledo & Ironton

Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range

Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Railway

Elgin, Joliet & Eastern Railway

Green Bay & Western

Illinois Central

Illinois Terminal

Iowa, Chicago & Eastern Railroad

Kansas City Southern (This railroad is still operating, it is placed here because of its long and storied history.)

Lake Superior & Ishpeming (This railroad is still operating but placed here because of its historical significance.)

Monon Route

New York, Chicago and St. Louis Railroad (The Nickel Plate Road)

Ohio Central System

Pere Marquette Railway

Soo Line

St. Louis Southwestern (The Cotton Belt)

Toledo, Peoria & Western (This railroad is still operating but is placed here because of its historical significance.)

Wabash

Southwest

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe (The Santa Fe)

Denver & Rio Grande Western (The Rio Grande)

Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad (MKT or Katy)

Missouri Pacific (The MoPac)

Saint Louis-San Francisco Railway (The Frisco)

Southern Pacific

Union Pacific (This railroad is still operating, it is placed here because of its long and storied history.)

Northwest

Burlington Northern

Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific (The Milwaukee Road)

The Milwaukee Road's Pacific Coast Extension

Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad

Great Northern

Northern Pacific

Pacific Electric Railway

Spokane, Portland & Seattle (SP&S)

Western Pacific

Miscellaneous

Railway Express Agency (The REA was not an operating railroad but was an integral part of the railroad industry during the "golden age" when all of the classic systems were in operation.)

For more information on fallen flags not mentioned above please click here.

Lastly, for a guide to the historical societies keeping alive the memory of most of the fallen flags covered above, plus many others, please click here.


You may notice that Canadian National and Canadian Pacific are now included in the website. After giving it much thought the two lines have played too significant a role in U.S. railroad industry's history and especially its future to be left out and not mentioned. For instance several fallen flags are now of Canadian ownership/control such as the Soo Line (and indirectly the Milwaukee Road through the Soo's takeover by CP), Delaware & Hudson Railway, Illinois Central Railroad, Grand Trunk Western, Central Vermont, and the Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific Railway.



footer for fallen flags page